


One Lone Dragon

by Mogadorian_Wolf



Category: The Lorien Legacies - Pittacus Lore
Genre: F/M, fairytale AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-12
Updated: 2015-10-12
Packaged: 2018-04-26 01:41:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4985062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mogadorian_Wolf/pseuds/Mogadorian_Wolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Daniela’s the dragon. Ella’s the princess. She breaks herself out and runs into her prince’s arms- Nine of course. The princess always gets the boy. Daniela should just throw in the towel, now.</p>
            </blockquote>





	One Lone Dragon

Daniela’s curled around the tower, as always, when she spots the prince. He doesn’t act all formal like the other princes she’s seen as her time as a dragon. He’s dressed down, like the idea of actually dressing royally appalls him, but he walks with that confident powerful stride only princes have. There’s no sword or shield in his hands, and he merely surveys Daniela with a look that says she’s-not-worth-his-time. She’s oddly intrigued by the prince, moving around the tower, just to keep him in her line of sight. The princess she’s guarding seems equally enamored by the deviant prince.

He paused outside of the tower, “You keeping anyone in that tower, or are you just keeping your gold in a fancy place?”

“I’m a hired out dragon. People hire me to guard their valuables,” Daniela explained in her hissing voice. He raises an eyebrow like he could be impressed or at the very least intrigued by the idea, “And they think you’re not going to fry them.”

Daniela pretends to be offended, though she has in fact done that to a couple of her less favorable employers, “I take my job very seriously.”

The prince laughs, “Sure you do.”

The conversation draws the young Princess Ella’s attention, and she appears in the window, “There isn’t a door. So if you’ve come to harass me, forget it.”

Daniela whispered conspiratorially to the prince, “She’s had a lot of visitors with less than honorable intentions. I’ve had to eaten them of course. It’s all in the contract. Don’t worry; it says nothing about eating harmless visitors.” Unless they tried to rescue the princess, of course. Daniela really hoped that wasn’t the case. She really liked this prince, and would hate to have to eat him.

The prince doesn’t looked reassured, but calls back up to the princess, “Sounds like a disadvantage for you. Second oldest son of one of the wealthiest kingdoms and you’re kept from soaking in my presence by the absence of a door.” Daniela hangs onto every word he says.

Ella scoffed at him, “I don’t even know your name. And you’re kingdom can’t be wealthier than mine.”

He laughs at her, “Prince Stanley of the Legacy Kingdom. And pray do tell, where do you hail from? What kingdom do you claims outdoes mine?”

Ella bit her lip, glancing at Daniela as if afraid such talk would not be allowed. Daniela doesn’t even noticed, too enthralled with the prince. Ella lifts her chin up, haughtily and replies, “Princess Ella, the only heir to the Mogadorian throne.”

Prince Stanley lets out an impressed whistle, “And here I was, under the impression that kings only produced more heirs than they can sustain. Let me tell you; siblings suck. And poison goes for way too cheap on the black market.”

Ella laughed, and he grinned. He doubtlessly would’ve continued, but a whistle cut him off, and he shook his head, making an annoyed sound in the back of his throat, “That would be John; he’s the baby of the family and completely convinced that if I’m gone for longer than fifteen minutes I’ve gotten myself into another fight. I’ll grace you with my presence tomorrow princess.”

And with that he ran off in the direction of the whistle, yelling insults at his baby brother. When he was completely out of sight, Daniela uncurled from her place around the tower and put her head in Ella’s window, “That was a nice prince.”

“He’s arrogant,” She countered, flopping back on her overly large bed with a tired sigh and another biting retort, “But I’m glad you didn’t eat him.”

Daniela almost let a couple of flames slip out in her temper, but she took a couple of deep breaths before responding, “You asked me to eat some of them, and my contract says nothing about eating visitors.”

“And it’s all about your contract isn’t it? What about the people you help keep prisoner? Don’t you think they deserve a life?” The young princess cried, sitting up in her temper. Daniela just stared evenly back at her, until Ella flopped back on the bed with a growl, “Why did my grandfather even hire you after he locked me in this tower? It shouldn’t be a crime to not want to be betrothed to a murderer!”

“What’s so wrong with him?” Daniela asked, genuinely confused. “All men are murderers. It’s part of the cycle of life and the way of men. Wars are basically a context for murder to be accepted.” She’d never met the young man given the hand of the princess’s in marriage.

Ella gave her a disgusted look as if a dragon could never understand the way of men. Daniela got the hint and withdrew from the princess’s room. You’d think after so many similar interactions with her charges, she’d stop trying to be so friendly to them. She supposed that was just what happened when a dragon hadn’t had any real friendship since she was a hatchling.

Prince Stanley came back the next day with a catcall, “I’ve heard that the beautiful princess that lives in this tower is betrothed to none other but my out casted half-brother, Cody.”

Ella’s face turned red, “And just who might an arrogant prince like yourself think you’re worthy to be betrothed to? Or are you just going to let your older brother take everything from you and mooch off the poor girl destined to be tied down to you?”

He grinned at her, “Oh betrothal’s overrated, and everyone knows I’m the least favorite. Father loves John, gives him a desirable marriage and wishes to jump past all us elders and give him the crown. Adam would let him, and I’m stuck betrothed to some girl from a no-named kingdom called Maren Elizabeth. I’m being handed off to poverty while my bastard brother is handed off to such a wealthy kingdom such as yours.”

Ella laughed, “You think it’s a picnic being betrothed to that murderer?” 

Daniela felt like an outcast again. She curled away from them, trying to tune out their idle, joyful conversation. It was working decently well, until Stanley circled around to the big question that all the princes ended up asking, “Need any help getting down?”

She perked up, slithering back around the tower, her brown eyes peering out at them curiously. Ella turned her nose up at that, “I can rescue myself.”

That was the first of that kind of response that Daniela had heard. She smiled, feeling proud of her little princess charge. They never needed princes to save them; it was just a way to keep the men running everything. Daniela had run into that sort of thing back in her own dragon kingdom. It’s why being a contract dragon had appealed so much to her. 

She expected Prince Stanley to scoff at that or try to degrade Ella. He surprisingly shrugged at that, “I can respect that. John’s all for that damsel in distress stuff- you know, being the damsel and having his older brothers rescue him. But um… hey, I’ve got to go. Dad’s arranging to ship me off with Princess Nowhere to fully get me out of the way tomorrow morning at dawn. He expects me to be there when she arrives. How’s tonight sound?”

Ella nodded happily, and Daniela looked at them curiously, while Prince Stanley strolled off, whistling like he hadn’t just told him his father was selling him for nothing. 

Daniela slid her head back into Ella’s room to see her flop back with a dreamy sigh. She noticed Daniela in her window and smiled brightly, “See? That’s the kind of prince I should be betrothed to. He knows I can take care of myself, treats me like an equal, not like I’m just some princess that knows nothing… I’m running away tonight.”

“As your guard, you probably shouldn’t be telling me that,” Daniela warned her hesitantly.

She snorted, “What are you going to do? Eat me? I’ve read your contract, Daniela. That goes against what it says, and you’re all about that contract. Unless… they don’t pay you fair. You can’t stop me from leaving. In fact… I think you’re going to help me.”

“No. I am charged with your protection, and-“

“And by seeing me elope with that prince, you make sure I’m better protected than if I ended up in the house of a prince who murdered his mother in cold blood. Think about it, Daniela. If a boy can so easily do that to his own mother, what chance do I have?” She pleaded, pulling at Daniela’s heartstrings; she knew how to twist Daniela to her will. It’s not like she really cared for her employer, but she did have a habit of falling in love with the princesses she guarded.

Daniela sighed in a growling tone, “Fine. You go to sleep, and I’ll tell you when your prince is here to take you away from your awful betrothed.”

A smile that could’ve rivaled the sun lit up Ella’s face, and she kissed her guardian dragon, “Thank you so much. Daniela. I hope someday, some amazing dragon sweeps you off to a beautiful kingdom as well.”

The moon was well into the sky, when Daniela spotted Prince Stanley lurking around the tower. She hated to do this, but seeing Ella smile would make it worth it, and she really didn’t want to eat the prince. Against her deep desire to keep the princess by her side, and maybe even the prince, Daniela gently woke up her charge, “He’s here.”

She bolted up as if she hadn’t really been asleep the whole time, and wrapped her arms around Daniela’s neck. Daniela was careful not to let her fall too early until the little princess’s feet touched the ground. Ella gave her one last kiss before happily running into her prince’s arms… just like every other princess Daniela had ever guarded. She never had anyone who’d embrace her like that, who’d never leave her side, and no one ever would. She was a dragon, and that was all everyone would ever see. The world suddenly seemed a lot colder.

**Author's Note:**

> If anyone's interested, I would be open to writing another one to go with it.


End file.
